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Thanks! Hey, what about five houses? I could give the animals, umm, dragon, phoenix, tiger, turtle, and, um, kangaroo. the names can be Dragolion(dragon), Dranzerius(phoenix), Drigelorian(tiger), Dracielix(turtle), and Dizellus(kangaroo)... some of you who have seen the Japanese animation, Beyblade, may see an obvious similarity, but I can't think of anything else! What do you think? I dont want to do any plagiarism, but... if you have better ideas for the names, feel free to tell!Thankyou!

Thanks! Hey, what about five houses? I could give the animals, umm, dragon, phoenix, tiger, turtle, and, um, kangaroo. the names can be Dragolion(dragon), Dranzerius(phoenix), Drigelorian(tiger), Dracielix(turtle), and Dizellus(kangaroo)... some of you who have seen the Japanese animation, Beyblade, may see an obvious similarity, but I can't think of anything else! What do you think? I dont want to do any plagiarism, but... if you have better ideas for the names, feel free to tell!Thankyou!

Dragon, Phoenix, Tiger, Turtle, and.... Kangaroo?

One of these things is not like the other,
One of these things just doesn't belong...

I'd suggest you either pick mythical/symbolic animals, or native Australian animals, but don't pick four mythical/symbolic animals that have nothing to do with Australia, and then throw in a kangaroo.

As for making up names, maybe do some research into Aboriginal mythology, the origins of Australian place names, etc. That would sound a lot better than just making up words.

I agree with Inverarity. The kangaroo amongst dragons and phoenixes is rather, for the lack of a better word, random. Australia has a vast number of native animals, such as: the koala, wombat, kangaroo, dingo, kookaburra, possum, emu, platypus... you get the idea.

I also agree with Inverarity on the names of the houses. Go aboriginal. In Australia the vast majority of our towns have aboriginal names, so don't be afraid to include some connection to the aboriginals. We are greatly influenced by them.

Now I have something constructive to add to this thread! (Well, I hope it's constructive...)

I agree with Azhure and Inverarity -- it's either the houses have an Australian flavour or another influence.

Again, I agree in them saying that you should use and Aboriginal 'theme', if you like. They have what is called 'The Dreamtime', and stories that have been passed down from generation to generation about how animals and the world came to how it was. You could use animals and plants, or even names of animals and plants in their own language as house names. Though when I say 'their language', Aboriginals have many, many, many territories and regions, all with different names, dialects and customs. So, depending on where you were placing your school, you could use a word from that dialect.

Right... i think that my first ones were wierd too...sorry for the randomness, i apologise

Well, then kangaroo, koala, possum, kookaburra and platypus it is!

I was doing some reaserch at school yesterday and this is what I came with up with. I decided to use the scientific names of the animals, because I couldnt find anything else. (Our computer lab rules are...weird. We are allowed to go into Wikipedia and Google only, and this is all I could find).

kangaroo is the symbol of Ginosus house. (real scientific name: Macropus Fuliginosus)
koala is the symbol of Cinereus house. (real name:Phascolarctos cinereus)
possum is the symbol of Eroidea house. (real name: phalangeroidea)
kookaburra is the symbol of Dacelo house.
platypus is the symbol of Anatinus house.

I don't know if this is something I should tell people - but most people in Australia don't like kangaroos. Especially not country people! All of my country friends shoot kangaroos for fun - they call it roo-shooting.

Oh, and as a boarding schooler - we have houses like they do in Hogwarts, but they are only sports-related, and at all the schools I've been to they are, like at Hogwarts, named after founders or other important people in the school's history - e.g. We had Leslie for John Leslie, the founder of the Southern Downs, (where the school was located), and Mackay, Macinnes and Cameron for the school's scottish heratige. They don't tend to have any affect on living quarters. Here the houses are split up by buildings and age groups - younger students are in one house, older students in another etc.

majestic_ginny- Your idea is random but I like it. Dragons, tigers, turtles and phoenixes are strong. Don't laugh! Snapping turltes have the a strong bite. By putting a Kangy amoung them, your pointing out the strangth of it. They box! And they have powerful kicks. They balance themselves on they tail to do it. Cool huh?? By the by, random rocks anyway. *Is a fan of random.*

Kangaroo shooting? How mean! I'm a beachy girl myself since I live on the coast but my grandfather lives in state and works on a farm three days- four days a week, so I'm a bit country as well. The country people I know don't go Roo-shooting! Kangaroo's are an Australian animal and we respect them. Maybe it's different in Brisban then it is in NSW's but yeah, we may accidently hit them with our cars but yeah. My friend was on the Dowl and she had to do work to stay on it, so she volinteered at this place that was set up to look after animals that were hunted for sport. Apparently there were alot of kangaroo's and the people that hurt them weren't very nice. Drunken people thinking it was fun most likely. But like I said, different states, different veiws.

I think "roo-shooting" was only initiated because kangaroos are extremely over-populated in rural areas. They graze on farmland, leading to a lack of food for livestock. This is not, however, a popular sport in the lives most Australians. The ability to 'cull' kangaroos was only legalised recently, I believe? I assume it was allowed for the preservation of farmer wealth.

For the benefit of anyone planning to include the concept in a fiction: I just wanted to say that the average Australian would rather aid sick wildlife than be the reason for their death!

I know that Austrailia is a commonwealth of Britain. Given this fact, how similar do you think British and Austrailian wizarding education would be? Do you think they would have the house system, among other things? Do the ordinary educational systems of the two countries have very much in common?

I think they are quite similar -- yes, lots of schools have house systems, and such. I think in a wizarding context they would be similar, but not exact copies of each other.

The way they are run would be similar [for wizarding education], but I think the main differences would be the way students are assessed, [i.e. OWLs and NEWTs would be kept to Britain; the Australian exams would be different] and I think that in Britain they start high school/secondary school earlier than they do in Australia. [In the ordinary school system.] We start high school at twelve or thirteen [depending on you birthday, state and school system], and finish at seventeen/eighteen. The grades run seven to twelve; according to Wikipedia [>.>] the English high school goes from year seven to thirteen, but they start year seven at eleven.

That's all I can think of now, but this page could helpful. The table and lists make the most sense for ages, grades, etc. Same goes for this, but for England. Correct me if any information is wrong.